Nominet Appoints Chief Commercial Officer

Nominet, the .uk domain name registry, has announced the appointment of Jill Finney as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO).

From their announcement:

The CCO role has been newly created as we aim to build on our strengths as an internationally-respected registry and respond to the challenges of a liberalised domain name market. As part of her role, Jill will manage Nominet’s existing route-to-market, including relationships with channel partners, and will also lead our marketing and communications.

Jill will work closely with CEO Lesley Cowley and the two recently appointed members of Nominet’s senior leadership team – Chief Operating Officer Eleanor Bradley and Chief Technology Officer Simon McCalla.

Lesley Cowley said: “It’s vital that we adapt to an increasingly competitive market, in order that we can continue to grow, deliver a world-class service, and invest in a more trusted internet. We’re delighted that Jill has chosen to join us in the new CCO role, and look forward to working with her to achieve our goals.”

Jill Finney commented: “It’s an incredibly exciting time in the domain name market so I’m delighted to be joining a company of Nominet’s calibre and reputation. I’ll be working with the membership, our registrars, potential business partners and colleagues to ensure Nominet delivers a competitive, commercially-savvy proposition that still stays true to our public purpose credentials.”

Jill will join Nominet next month from the Care Quality Commission, where she was Deputy Chief Executive.

Nominet has been trying to become more commercially oriented in recent months, with the company launching a number of marketing initiatives for .uk.

With the impending launch of new TLDs ccTLD registries such as Nominet are also becoming more involved in gTLDs which are generally more commercially oriented than country codes.

About Michele Neylon

Michele is founder and managing director of domain registrar and hosting company Blacknight. He also co-hosts the Technology.ie podcast.

I really take issue with an organisation that asserts “respect” as a strengths. Would it not be better to talk about what you do for others, rather than talk about how you say (imagine) others think of you?

I used to respect Nominet, until they came up with that ridiculous second level plan – and now that I think about it, there is another case of what is best for them (money) rather than seek to deliver equitable value for their cusomers.